Airport Delay Creates a Campaign Dispute

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: December 3, 1999

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Hillary Rodham Clinton got into a nasty and complicated spat yesterday, this time over whether the first lady's plane, called Executive One Foxtrot, had delayed regular commercial traffic at La Guardia Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it hadn't. Mr. Giuliani at first said it had, then said it was all a joke and told reporters to ''lighten up,'' but then said, back-pedaling and confusing the matter further, that ''as far as I know it's true.'' Mrs. Clinton's spokesman, Howard Wolfson, called the mayor a liar, and added that ''he should get his campaign out of the gutter and apologize.''

Mr. Giuliani and Mrs. Clinton are unannounced candidates for the United States Senate in 2000.

The latest round in what is certain to be a very long campaign began on Wednesday in Washington, when the mayor apologized for leaving a speech early because he feared he might encounter delays at La Guardia Airport that he facetiously said were caused by ''a certain candidate, candidate for the Senate, who still doesn't live in New York.''

By late afternoon at City Hall, an aide to the mayor was busily handing out to reporters an internal F.A.A. memo that told air traffic controllers that ''steps are being taken to mitigate air traffic delays'' which may be caused by presidential aircraft, including Executive One Foxtrot. The memo did not specifically say that Mrs. Clinton's plane, a small government-owned jet of about 15 seats, had caused delays.

Yesterday morning, Mrs. Clinton's campaign struck back. ''Rudy Giuliani lied,'' said Mr. Wolfson, who was on Mrs. Clinton's plane as it returned late from Buffalo to La Guardia on Tuesday afternoon -- a time when the F.A.A. said many other planes were delayed by the volume of traffic and bad weather.

Paul Turk, an F.A.A. spokesman, said Mrs. Clinton's plane circled for about 20 minutes before landing at 5:37 p.m. ''There were no special services provided for that aircraft,'' he said. ''That airplane was simply treated as one more in the mix.''

Yesterday, Mr. Giuliani said that he had been referring to the Tuesday delays when he made his comment on Wednesday in Washington. ''It was a joke!'' he said to reporters yesterday during a news conference at City Hall. ''Gosh, you've got to lighten up!'' But Mr. Giuliani then said his information came from four separate people ''who told me pilots announced'' at the Washington airport ''that flights were delayed because of the first lady's campaign.'' Mr. Giuliani added that ''as far as I know, it's true.''

By late afternoon yesterday, the matter had made its way up to the Department of Transportation, of which the F.A.A. is a part. Bill Schulz, the spokesman for the department, called a reporter unsolicited to say: ''The first lady's plane has not caused delays. Period.''